Earlier evaluations of propellants which contained predominately ammonium perchlorate and rubber indicated large failure diameters. Thus, testing sufficiently large sized propellant diameters at full scale proved to be very expensive, and although major testing was completed in the mid-sixties under a program "Standard Propellant Hazards" (SOPHY), which was termed the failure diameter project to end all propellant failure diameter testing, the SOPHY predictions have been applied and used to good purpose for many similar propellant formulations even to present times.
More recently, the methods of further characterizing explosives and other energetic materials such as propellant comprise applying a shock wave to the material under investigation by means of a known explosive charge. This is typically done by providing a donor explosive in the form of a cylinder or cone which is placed on top of an acceptor which is the material being investigated. Attenuators such as cards (plastics or paper) or water is sometimes placed between the donor and acceptor to quantify the succeptability of the acceptor. For example, an explosive pellet of tetryl (donor) is exploded against a sample of a rocket propellant (acceptor) with 1/16 inch cards or discs of plexiglas in between. If the propellant detonates with 50 cards in between but does not detonate with 60 cards in between then it is more sensitive to detonation than a propellant which will detonate at 30 cards but does not detonate at 40 cards.
The need for very small testing has been indicated by not only economic considerations but environmental impact and restrictions against polutants. As a result, acceptable test methods which employ only small quantities, such as one pint of an experimental mix, have been developed which predict failure diameters that are comparable with failure diameters based on SOPHY estimates. The fringe benefits which result from developed technology have generally resulted from further exploitation of some concepts encountered during the development of new technology. For example, the generation of a planar shock wave to impact with a right circular cylinder of explosive was involved with failure diameter determinations of explosive in small scale amounts.
It is now the object of this invention to employ planar shock wave technology to achieve a new result.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a planar wave generator for producing a planar wave that travels down a shape charge cone to give amplified force on the jet.